Blogging Ottinger (tim)

There are millions of guitars I don’t have. It’s not Pokemon, you don’t have to collect them all. However, I wouldn’t mind having one of each kind of pickup. I’m not the gonzo guitar collector who has to have the top-of-the-line anything, though I really wanted to have a real american strat so that is my one top-of-the-line exception to the rule. I am not dying to get an SG like Angus Young or a Les Paul like so many of them.

Also, I don’t like having to keep batteries in my guitars, so I’ve gotten over the active pickup thing. But it is nice to have variety, and switching between guitars makes you think differently about playing.

Some people have asked me how many I have, and are surprised to find that I really don’t have a houseful of them. I have:

• a nice Fender American Stratocaster HSS as my single-coil baby (red sunburst, including the cool S1 switch),
• an Ovation Breadwinner tricked out with Seymour Duncan humbuckers (white “spackle” finish)
• One acoustic guitar, an Ibanez P5CENT — not expensive, could use a pickup upgrade, but solid-top at least.
• One tiny applecreek travel guitar, acoustic. It’s worth about what I paid for it, which is not much. That’s perfect for a travel guitar.
• I have an Agile PS-900 on its way (tracking through FedEx right now).

At any given time, one or more of the above may be at my house, and the others either loaned out or at a church somewhere. I have to keep track of where they are from week to week.

I actually *technically* have part ownership in a frankenstrat my buddy Jonathan built up, though I assert no ownership rights and he will make better use of it than I would. It started out as my white Squire cheapie strat, but he’s made it into a real guitar. He’s refinished it in Daphne Blue, added a lot of excellent electronics work, and will be dropping on some Sperzel tuners soon. It’s amazing. “Partial ownership” is really a conceit, because it makes me feel like a part of the process and I’m proud of Jonathan’s work. It’s really his guitar, I was just a partial donor.

I also technically own (I paid for) two other acoustic guitars that I used for a while and then loaned out with no intention of ever collecting back. I have two friends who wanted to learn, and I wanted to help them. One was an Applause turtle-back acoustic with the usual crack running across its face, the other was a no-name cheapie acoustic with a junk peizo pickup. But I hope my friends use them now and then, and maybe think of me when they do.

What I don’t have, and should have to round of the collection (some day, in several years) is:

• a guitar with soapbar pickups like the Fender TC90 perhaps,
• something with lipstick pickup(s) (maybe a Dano or Tele),
• a hollowbody (maybe the Washburn HB32 or SX GG5 or Schecter Corsair), and
• a Hybrid like perhaps the Taylor T5, Crafter, Michael Kelly, Godin, Ovation VXT, or the Parkwood.

If I got a hybrid, a Crafter or Parkwood or Michael Kelly would be cool. They’re such beautiful guitars. The Taylor is a dream, but is very expensive. The Ovation isn’t cheap. But I think I’ll save the Hybrid as a reward to myself for learning more about music. I play a lot, but I don’t know much about music. I should. I’m too old and slow and lame to ever be a pro musician, so really owning one of each is a little silly. It’s a hobby that lets me worship freely, though, and I don’t have many hobbies. If I bought a guitar every few years, I don’t think it would be so bad.

This is all about fun, not about career.